25 Feb Participant Profile – Jim and Annette Anderson

Jim Anderson and his wife, Annette, are treasured members of the Portland Lahash community. They ate a lot of rice and beans during the first few years of the event! They now live in a senior community. Jim shares a few reflections on how this transition has changed their approach:

Jim and Annette Anderson

“Living in a senior community complicates Rice & Beans Month. Every day, meals are prepared for us. Never rice and beans. So how shall we participate?

Perhaps, the core of it isn’t what we find on our plates. It is the choice to let our food remind us that we share life with those who have little to eat and may go hungry, become malnourished, get sick, even die. To a token of sacrifice, a few mild hunger pangs, we say “yes!”

Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the wilderness to prepare for ministry, followed by his temptation, present Christians with a picture of obedient surrender. Solidarity with Jesus and with the hungry is the spirit of Rice & Beans Month. Let our eating reflect our surrender. Be blessed, friends, wherever you live, during these 31 days of faithfulness.”

As you consider what your own participation in Rice & Beans Month might look like this year, let this example remind you that growing in love, compassion, and Christ-likeness is the core of this experience, and that can happen in many different ways.

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Article adapted from Hope Is Alive, a quarterly magazine publication of Lahash International. You can sign-up online to receive this free magazine.